Report on the NANO-POGO Outreach Program in Ghana Dr A. M. Lamptey Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
T
he outreach program was finally scheduled for 12th August 2015. The par cipants included a youth group of Ac on Chapel Interna onal, some interested individuals and some level 300 students of the Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences, University of Ghana. The audience were 62 in number for the seminar and twenty of them par cipated in the beach clean-up. This was as a result of the fact that there were other ac vi es scheduled for the same day. There was a one-hour slot for the seminar. They were aged between 19 and 28 years. The seminar was held in the Francis kofi Drah Conference Room on University of Ghana campus. The par cipants were shu led from the church premises to the University of Ghana and to the James town beach (the most polluted beach in Ghana) for the clean-up exercise. Refreshment was served and souvenirs (pens, notepads and bookmarks) were shared a er the seminar. The seminar topic was, “Importance and Conserva on of the Marine Environment”; in which they were briefed on the various divisions of the marine environment and its importance, problems associated with the marine and coastal environment in Ghana, and the preven ve measures to tackle the environmental issues. A Naval Officer was invited to give a 5-minute talk on the role of the Ghana Navy in protec ng the Ghanaian coast. The audience was very responsive and had lots of ques ons to ask a er the seminar. The beach clean-up lasted for two hours and the dominant li er iden fied was mainly plas cs. Plas c li er is a big menace in Ghana. The li er was iden fied and sorted out and later disposed of. The beach clean-up was meant to create the awareness of the devasta ng effect of li ering our environment.
Top: Dr Angela Lamptey and par cipants of the outreach event in Ghana. Bo om: The James town beach clean-up
Contact us: rumyantseva.anya@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.org NANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.org
3
